Lost Highway
Lost Highway was written by David Lynch and Barry Gifford, directed by David Lynch, and released in 1997. A dark and erotic psychological thriller that explores themes of infidelity and violence, Lost Highway is arguably an example of contemporary film noir, but with surreal imagery and themes. Structure (Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.) The filmmakers have compared the structure of the film to a Möbius strip. A little more helpful is David Lynch's comment in the screenplay that the story is about a murderer with multiple personalities, told from the different points of view of these personalities. Responses Infamously, the film received "two thumbs down" from Siskel and Ebert - though Lynch used this to his advantage by claiming it was "two good reasons to go and see Lost Highway". Introduction and Overview Lost Highway unfolds the inner workings of Fred Madison's fears and fantasies regarding his wife Renee. Fred fears that Renee does not want him, that he does not satisfy her, and that she is cheating on him. In short, Fred wants to possess Renee. Fred’s fantasies and fears are full of contradictions, but here’s how they play out: Fred murders Renee he’s her virile lover and she can’t get enough of him (as portrayed through Pete Dayton and Alice) she’s possessed by another man (Mr. Eddy) and she’s a whore (as depicted through her relationship to Andy, the pornographic filmmaker) he catches her with another man and kills him (this happens twice: Pete catches Alice with Andy, and Fred catches Renee with Laurent) and most importantly, she eludes his possession (“I want you Alice.”/”You’ll never have me.”) Method and Development The film develops by means of the carefully orchestrated repetition and reconfiguration of thematic elements. After revealing Fred’s murderous desire to possess Renee, the film introduces doubles (Pete and Alice) while inverting key characteristics: Fred’s an inadequate lover; Pete’s a virile lover Renee is unsatisfied; Alice is insatiable Through the doubles, implicit themes and dynamics are made explicit: she’s possessed by another man (Mr. Eddy) she’s a whore he’s threatened by the possessive ‘other man’ (literally: Mr. Eddy threatens Pete with a gun) he kills the man she’s whoring herself with (Andy) The character inversions are then exposed as lies driven by the truth that she eludes his possession (“You’ll never have me.”; “Her name is Renee! If she told you her name is Alice, she’s lying. And your name?…What the f*ck is your name?”). Reintroducing the original pair of Fred and Renee, the concluding section synthesizes and ‘resolves’ the plot’s development: (compare with the preceding set of bullet points) Renee is with the possessive ‘other man’ (Mr. Eddy/Laurent) she’s a whore (notice Renee in the porn clips) Fred beats the possessive 'other man' with a gun while wearing his counterpart’s virile clothes (Fred wears Pete’s motorcycle jacket throughout the concluding section of the film) Fred murders Laurent Chronology of Events (choose your adventure) The order and significance of events depends on how you answer several questions: First, does Fred turn into Pete in his jail cell, or is that just in his head? The film can be interpreted both ways, and the film intentionally allows both interpretations. It is futile to try to determine or prove which of these interpretations is "the" right one. Second, if you say that Fred’s transformation into Pete is just in his head, then you have to decide if Andy and Laurent were actually murdered, or if these murders are merely fantasies. Depending on how you answer the above questions, you end up with one the following variants: 1. Fred murders Laurent, Renee, and Andy, then he imagines transforming into Pete, but the repressed realities of his past begin to creep back in. The chronology looks like this: Fred murders Laurent prior to the scenes we see at the beginning of the film, and he murders Renee and Andy after Andy’s party. 2. Fred murders Laurent and Renee, imagines transforming into Pete and killing Andy, then the repressed realities of his past begin to creep back in. 3. Fred murders Renee and Andy, and then works through his repressed suspicions and desires via his fantasies, though he never actually caught Renee with anyone and he never killed anyone named “Laurent.” 4. Fred murders Renee, imagines transforming into Pete, and then works through his repressed suspicions and desires via his fantasies, though he never really killed Laurent or Andy. 5. Finally, you can say that Fred transforms into Pete in his jail cell and leave the scenes in the order in which they appear in the film. Fred murders Renee, transforms into Pete, becomes Alice’s lover, kills Andy, gets rejected by Alice, turns back into Fred, catches Renee with Laurent, then kills Laurent. This interpretation cannot pretend to be realistic. Rather, it lets the film play out the realization of Fred’s contradictory fears and fantasies about Renee, pushing them to their “logical”, but contradictory, conclusions. Mobius Strip A mobius strip is continuous one-sided surface made by taking a regular two-sided strip (of paper for example), turning one end upside down, and attaching it to the other end. You can now trace a continuous line beginning anywhere on the strip and return to your starting point, having traversed both sides of what had been a two-sided strip. See Wikipedia's entry for Mobius Strip Fred’s return, at the end of the film, to the beginning of the film (“Dick Laurent is dead.”), having traversed a parallel identity, can be seen as having the structure of a mobius strip. Because chronologies 1 – 5 described in 3. Chronology of events (choose your adventure) all involve a psychological and/or surreal journey, rather than one based in linear time, the mobius structure can be combined with any of them. The "Mystery Man" First, some observations: 1. The Mystery Man is grotesque and otherworldly in appearance. 2. Fred first sees the Mystery Man right after Fred describes his dream to Renee, in which Renee looks like she’s being attacked. At Andy’s party, when the Mystery Man says “We've met before... at your house... you invited me,” this is what he is referring to. 3. It is the Mystery Man’s “custom” to get involved only when he's “wanted.” 4. A sinister laugh is his answer to Fred’s question, “Who are you?” 5. At Andy’s party, Fred refers to the Mystery Man as “the guy in black.” 6. He inhabits a burning cabin. 7. The Mystery Man appears in Fred's vision of the cabin right before Fred turns into Pete. 8. Pete and Alice go to the Mystery Man’s cabin to meet a “fence” who will take Andy’s stuff and give them passports. The Mystery Man is a fence, or a go-between: he receives and sells stolen goods on the black market. 9. Pete turns back into Fred at the Mystery Man's cabin. 10. After Pete turns back into Fred, Fred is chased the Mystery Man carrying a video camera. The Mystery Man is the source of the videotapes at Fred’s apartment. Notice that a “fence,” in the sense of a boundary, separates yet connects two spaces, just as a “fence,” in the sense of a black market dealer, serves as an intermediary or bridge between buyers and sellers of stolen goods. Similarly, the Mystery Man serves as an intermediary or bridge between the two worlds of Fred-and-Renee and Pete-and-Alice. It is by way of the Mystery Man that Fred transforms into Pete (after having the vision of the cabin), and it is at the Mystery Man’s cabin, an in-between space, that Pete turns back into Fred. The Mystery Man enables the transitions between Fred and Pete. The Mystery Man’s role can be seen as a sort devil figure who makes Fred’s innermost fears and fantasies -- fears and fantasies that Fred cannot even admit to himself -- come true. The repressed fantasy of murdering Renee, expressed in Fred’s dream, is the Mystery Man’s invitation, but the fantasy of murdering Renee is also bound up with a whole host of other fears and desires: Fred fears that she’s a whore and that she’s possessed by another man; Fred wishes that he could be her virile lover and that she desired him; Fred fears catching her with another man but also fantasizes killing him; Fred fears having Renee reject and elude his possessive grasp. The Mystery Man allows all these things to come about, revealing along the way that the fantasy of being her virile lover is a lie driven by the truth that she eludes his possession. From the scene at the Mystery Man's cabin: Pete: “I want you Alice.” Alice: “You’ll never have me.” ...Pete turns into Fred... Fred: “Where’s Alice?” Mystery Man: “Alice who? Her name is Renee!! If she told you her name is Alice, she’s lying. And your name?...What the f*ck is your name?” "Psychogenic Fugue" David Lynch has used the phrase “psychogenic fugue” to describe Lost Highway, although he was made aware of the phrase -- and the psychological condition -- only after working on the film, during the publicity campaign. Nevertheless, if there are two words that are capable of describing Lost Highway, they are indeed “psychogenic fugue.” First, the film employs “psychogenic fugue” in the psychiatric sense. Strictly speaking, however, what happens in the film cannot possibly be a case of psychogenic fugue. Psychogenic fugue involves (1) sudden or unexpected flight or travel to a new location; (2) an amnesic forgetting of one’s previous identity and life; and (3) the assumption of a new identity. See Wikipedia's entry for "psychogenic fugue." However, if Fred is trapped in a jail cell, but imagines he is Pete Dayton at Arnie’s garage, then Fred has an altogether different, and more extreme, psychological disorder. Nevertheless, the transition from the world of Fred and Renee to the world of Pete and Alice is enabled by the assumption of a new identity and by the amnesic forgetting of the past. As well, the identities of Fred and Renee return at the same time that the new identities are exposed as lies. (“Where’s Alice?” / “Her name is Renee! If she told you her name is Alice, she’s lying. And your name?…what the f*ck is your name?”) Second, the film employs “fugue” in the musical sense. Roughly stated, a fugue elaborates a set of variations on a theme. A fugue introduces a musical theme and develops the theme by re-articulating, modifying, and re-configuring the theme. A fugue states and re-states its theme continuously, but the goal is to never re-state the theme in exactly the same way. The portion of the fugue that introduces the theme is called the exposition. The following section is called the development. Various techniques can be used to modify and develop the theme while ensuring that it remains recognizable. For example, the melody might be flipped upside down, a technique known as “inversion.” Or the note values of the theme might be doubled, known as “augmentation.” The final section of a fugue, sometimes known as the recapitulation, consists of a final statement of the theme in the key in which the fugue began. It acts as a kind of “summing up” of the whole piece while also providing a resolution or conclusion to the work. Lost Highway’s central thematic elements consist of Fred’s fears and fantasies regarding his wife Renee (see 1. Introduction and overview). Lost Highway repeats, reconfigures, and develops its themes in much the same way that a fugue does, complete with three main sections: exposition (from the beginning to Fred’s transformation into Pete) development (ending with Pete’s transformation back into Fred) and recapitulation (from Fred’s return to the end of the film) The film introduces its themes via the world of Fred and Renee, develops them through the world of Pete and Alice, and recapitulates them through a return to the world of Fred and Renee. See 2. Method and development. Lost Highway is like a fugue not only in its overall structure but also in its technique of repeating specific images, pieces of music, and elements of the story (see section VI below). Third, “psycho-genic” is a particularly apt expression because the narrative that the film unfolds is psychologically driven.